Inappropriate Conversations

I grew up in the Central Time Zone in the United States. The late news was at 10 p.m. On Friday nights, one of the local stations would start a movie at 10:30, and it was often quite thrilling to a kid my age. Some themes were supernatural, others science fiction. Endings weren't always as happy as the Disney and Pink Panther movies my parents preferred for a family outing to the cinema. Halloween in particular was peak season for this "late night" Friday movie of the week. 

Cases in point:

A Cold Night's Death
Carnival of Souls
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Sherlock Holmes and The Scarlet Claw
The Other (1972)
Asylum (Amicus)
The House that Dripped Blood
Trilogy of Terror

When Inappropriate Conversations #42 was released in January 2011, I named it "The Morning After for Classic Made-For-TV Movies" and that title still works based on the flow of the show. I wanted this TalkBack episode to also note a relatively recent Facebook venture, a public group called Made For TV Program Direction. The idea is to accumulate what will be a long list of citations, nostalgic memories of past television program -- some seemingly forgotten. Feel free to join in if this podcast memory strikes some other memories.

http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/42-the-morning-after-for-classic-made-for-tv-movies/

I'm probably less sure now than I was 7 years ago about whether the Sunday School hour in most Christian churches is the best type of small group. It was the type I was most familiar with then. Now, I'd say the main requirement isn't location or time of meeting, but the ability to speak very freely about a challenging range of topics. Today, that range would include double-standards and miscarriages of justice from the halls of Congress to local district attorneys offices. Any small group that cannot handle conversations like that fails to achieve its mission. And any notion that conversations like that have no place within the church fundamentally misrepresents what "church" should be.

In the process of considering whether the message, or a worship service itself, was fundamentally different inside a sanctuary or some other form of cathedral versus a more ordinary room, my family ended up encountering a church that didn't have a building at all. No sanctuary. No roof over their heads at all, so to speak. And that's where we ended up, too. 

TalkBack episodes in podcast form exist largely due to Spotify. That's also among the places the new Harmony Springs Gives Voice podcast can be found.

Whether racism is more prevalent and toxic within, rather than outside, the church?

Robert P. Jones of PRRI

Preview for White Savior: Racism in the American Church

A significant number of Americans, most from the political and religious right, still owe Barack Obama an apology. 
When you understand the persecution a group thinks they will suffer, whether based on rational conclusions or not, it provides great insight into what they would do if given ultimate and absolute power. We are wise to be wary. The people who predicted Obama would "round up" both Christians and guns might just pose a similar dire threat to their perceived political enemies. We haven't done a sufficient job of denouncing false prophecies in recent years, and now we must deal with the consequences.

http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/191-false-political-prophecies/

Consider this the background material for the previous Inappropriate Conversations (#IC #231). Things have not improved in the past five years, and an argument can be made that the standards for law enforcement have gotten worse. I say this with as much sadness as anger, although I'm sure the anger cuts through. It's painful enough to bring even a mildly empathetic person to his knees, at a time in American where that gesture is inexplicably controversial.

http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/157-letting-justice-roll/